KF Seetoh: My best spots for Singapore street food

KF Seetoh, for CNN • Updated 8th April 2015

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(CNN) — The Guru of Good Grub. Singapore's street food maven.

Whatever name they call him, there's no disputing the fact that KF Seetoh is the island nation's resident expert in street food.

CNN caught up with the founder of Singapore's biennial World Street Food Congress and asked him where he likes to eat in a city stuffed with great urban tucker.

The longest queue for noodles: Bak chor mee

KF Seetoh

KF Seetoh/Makansutra

This is a deviously addicting vinegar and spicy sambal pork noodle dish, bedeviled with lard. Loaded with calories? Yes, but no one cares.

A good bak chor mee demands that the tang and spiciness, combined with soy sauce, be exacting and perfectly balanced with soft slices of pork, meat balls, liver, dumplings, and crispy sun dried smokey chips of "pi her", or dried flat fish bones.

Hill Street Tai Wah Pork Noodles' version rules, and no one in the queue minds the 45-minute wait each day.

Best signature seafood dish: Chili crabs

Chili crab, Singapore's de facto national seafood dish.

KF Seetoh/Makansutra

This national seafood dish was created in the 1950s and, guess what, the restaurant that invented it is still around.

So is the chef -- Mr. Hooi, now in his 80s. Mr. Hooi's version of chili crabs marries a rich and spicy sambal with meat stock and lime. Then a whole cut and cracked meaty Sri Lanka crab is lowered in. Just before it's plated, eggs are dropped in to smooth the equation.

The best-kept secret: White pepper crabs

Mattar Road Seafood puts wine, white pepper powder and corns, shots of sesame oil, oyster sauce and fish sauce together with some spring onions, to rock white pepper crabs into one of the best versions you'll ever get of this Singapore-born culinary wonder.

The technique of high wok heat searing does extra wonders to the flavors too.

Most creative street dish: Cze cha duck rolls

Hoy Yong Seafood Restaurant is one that does it right. In the fog of bewildering offerings, the shrimp tempura with a pumpkin curry cream stands out.

As does the duck fillet roll filled with prawns, salted egg yolk, minced pork, coriander and mushrooms, deep fried to golden perfection in an impossible-looking fluffy, flaky crispy and crumbly batter. All that's needed is a mayonnaise or sambal dip to complete the masterpiece.

The best twist: Bali nasi lemak

Sweet crispy black chicken over coconut rice and spicy sambal.

KF Seetoh/Makansutra

This Malaysian-style spicy coconut rice meal is given a spin at Bali Nasi Lemak.

Touches of Bali (or Indonesia for that matter) are added in the form of the country's black kecap manis (sweet savoury soy sauce), tossed with supremely crispy chicken drumsticks or wings. This is the eatery's signature topping.

Most desperately delicious: Sup tulang

What's a street food seller to do when they run out of Indian style mutton broth -- a favorite of their regular customers, the late shift taxi cabbies?

Get embarrassed.

But never mind, their customers say, just serve the "bottom of the pot" -- the chunks of bone and marrow that was used to boil the soup. Add some spices and tomato paste and serve it up with slices of baguette. That's how the mean-looking platter of red sauced shank bones, otherwise known as Sup Tulang, was born.

This dish defies table manners.

Diners are expected to knock, shake, rattle and roll out the marrow or -- seriously --use a straw to sip it up while gnawing on the little bits of meat and tendons.

Most ironic: Fried Hokkien prawn noodles

This is what happens when you entrust a delicate and unctuous recipe to friendly forces from "the other side."

Some Hokkien folks in the last century shared this seafood noodle dish with their Teochew buddies, who promptly took it to the market en masse. Now, this Hokkien dish is associated with the Teochews, whose cuisine makes up a beautiful part of Singapore's culinary chaos.

Two types of noodles, yellow egg and rice noodles are braised and fried in a rich seafood stock, soy sauce, topped with shrimps, squid and belly pork slices.

The hook that brings all those flavors together, is seared and fragrant chopped garlic, introduced at the end of the fry.

The fussiest: Nyonya cuisine

Chef Ben Teo was raised in a Nyonya or Peranakan (descendants of long-ago Chinese immigrants)environment, and grew up eating soulful Peranakan fare cooked by his late grandmother, peppered with love.

He's also trained in the finer art of Cantonese and western cuisine, and now, he's back in a Nyonya kitchen.

"This is the best way to remember and honor my grandmother," says Ben Teo.

Some of his seemingly unpronounceable signature fare, like ayam buah keluak (black nut chicken), is pictured on the wall.

But what you must come for, is his bakwan kepiting (crab meat ball soup). The magic is in the soup. He blends flower crab and prawn shells and melds it into chicken stock (can you imagine) and some spices. The crabmeat ball is death by seafood --- mince prawn, crab meats, turnips, carrot and some mince pork, all spun into a ball of heaven which is really worth dying a few times for.

KF Seetoh is a celebrated Singapore street food expert. The founder of Makansutra, Seetoh is also the creator and curator of the city's biennial World Street Food Congress, a festival that draws top hawkers from around the world.